Dear Colleagues, I would place the question into a broader context:
For example, if we call 'S' the benefit to society (or the community) and 'I' the benefit to the individual (profit), any type of human action can be grouped as follows: S > 0 and I > 0 : "social investment" S < 0 and I > 0 : "destructive egoism" S > 0 and I < 0 : "true altruism" S < 0 and I < 0 : "destructive behavior" Yet economic history, logic and computer simulations (see: http://atta.labb.usb.ve/Klaus/altrupun.pdf) show that only the first one on this list causes sustainable economic growth. In relation to non-economic benefits, estimated through the human development index (HDI), there is a very close correlation between HDI and GDP (more data on this, though in Spanish, can be had at http://www.cee.usb.ve/La%20riqueza%20de%20las%20naciones.htm). Thus clearly, at least for the poor, economic considerations are the most important (if not they wouldn't have been called poor in the first place). Does anybody know of a web site with a list of successful projects worldwide? Klaus Jaffe Universidad Simon Bolivar Apartado 89000, Caracas 1080 http://atta.labb.usb.ve/Klaus/klaus.htm ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by USAID's dot-ORG Cooperative Agreement with AED, in partnership with World Resources Institute's Digital Dividend Project, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org and http://www.digitaldividend.org provide more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html>
